Unsealed Diablo III Proposal

Posted By: June 5, 2012

Last week a fan sent in a proposal for what he called Unsealed Diablo III, and asked us to post it for the community to see. I liked the presentation even though I don’t think there’s anything on earth that will influence Bliz to change their online-only DRM for D3. The following quote is from the reader’s email as he explains his motivation and idea, and you should view the infographic’s text which explains things further.

For an extended period of time now spanning both before and after Diablo III’s release I have had thoughts concerning the online-only nature of the game. I of course am among quite a number of people. Ranging from players/critics who tend to argue in various forums with highly emotional or dismissive conjectures and opinions that at average span a couple of sentences, or writers for online publications who report on the issue which in turns leads to more posts in response underneath.

What I am offering is a product of my own work which lays out a proposal for player access to Diablo III. I have been through Blizzard’s Diablo III home page and touched upon areas of concern with both what I have termed Sealed and Unsealed access might bring about, but not too much that it creates a sea of words. Ease of reading and comprehension is what I am attempting to aim for here.

I am aware that 90% of comments will be perhaps in similar vein to the ones I have mentioned above but I feel that I needed to sit down and bring my thoughts to some form of a visual medium, and in doing so attract and develop an amount of intelligent, incisive and hopefully a lack of enmity form of feedback as I intend to somehow make Blizzard aware of this document’s existence. If this comes about through notability brought on by your user base and/or when I find appropriate means to get in contact with Blizzard. Any assistance on the latter would be very much appreciated.

In finishing, I wish to stress that this isn’t a be-all end-all document. If need be I intend to cultivate feedback to further enrich and consolidate the contents, but not to the point it becomes a multipage document. I have other ideas for that if required ha-ha!

Yep, that was my first thought: This idea does nothing to address the concern about providing data to the public (which makes it easier to bot/maphack/etc. – not that online-only necessarily makes that impossible, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to suggest that it doesn’t make it more difficult).

So…..grats on making a .jpg of the same tired old complaints that everyone who wants this has been making, showing 0 understanding of what’s handled server-side and what’s handled locally, and what it would take to change that?

That’s the real issue, isn’t it? Always-online isn’t just about requiring game keys, it’s about server-side control of game assets to prevent the creation of games on servers outside Blizzard’s control.

Meh, multiplayer game is multiplayer. As much as some people want to scream that it’s not, it is.

As much as people want to scream about past games, this isn’t them.

And as much as people want to keep rewording the same crap over and over that it should change, it’s not going to. So, either deal with it or go play a game that doesn’t have this kind of setup, because only by speaking with your wallet, will you make a difference.

“Meh, multiplayer game is multiplayer. As much as some people want to scream that it’s not, it is.”

If D3 is a Multiplayer game to you… then you probably haven’t played a multiplayer game in your life. Here’s how you’ll see that i’m right. Host a server with no bots in Quake 3 and see what makes a Multiplayer-exclusive game.

Though bots may now exist (though, frankly, I don’t keep up with botting news so I don’t know specifically what you’re talking about), that doesn’t retroactively change Blizzard’s motivations for the online-only requirement.

My mistake I should have used the correct term. The automated bots that are farming gold and whatever the correct term is for what people are using to create the dupes, that’s what I meant. What is the last one called?

If you’re referring to seeing many of the same blue items on the auction house, eg rings or amulets, generally that’ll happen from a vendor rolling to sell that item. You can buy more than one copy. I did this myself when I saw a vendor roll a nice amulet: bought 8 of them and sold them on the auction house.

There’s pretty much no way that Blizzard is going to allow the server code (used to generate and track the levels, monsters, items etc.) to reside on the player’s computer, which is what would be required for offline play.

This wouldn’t work for the pure purpose that if Blizzard included the code for an offline mode, they would include basically everything an emulator would need to properly operate. It just isn’t going to happen. All those little formulas and bits of information the game needs to run? It doesn’t run on your machine.

Does the author of this graphic even know what he wants? At first i thought i was looking at a jpeg demonstrating a proposal for a single player mode, then i come to find out he’s wanting a \local lan mode?\ firstly, nothing about any of the message or graphic is laconic (as he so demonstrably desires) and secondly as others have posted he doesnt grasp the concept of what server side and client-side are for. Blizzard needs to come up with a single player client for the game, yes, but it would never come out retarded and aborted after the 3rd trimester like the graphic looks. -Oh so anonymous.

edit: i spy with my little eye someone who doesnt want to pay for d3 and has found an emulator on the net that doesnt work 100% and thinks that blizzard should just give the game away.

lets see if this anonymous poster will stand behind this “news” and update us with a comment regarding his true intention

Offline mode is never, ever, going to happen. It’s not because of player “safety,” eliminating dupes, hacks, cheats, or whatever else. It’s about RMAH revenue, plain and simple. Offline characters = zero RMAH revenue. Stop beating yourselves over the head over this issue. Blizzard is not listening.

We should be complaining about depth, and Diablo 3’s lack of it. It’s in everyone’s best interest, Blizzard included, to have as much depth in D3 as possible. The reason being, a) gamers like myself will enjoy D3 a lot more, and spend more time online if the game offers an “appropriate” amount of depth and, b) more time spent online = greater chance I spend my hard earned dollars on items in the RMAH.

Something like this would require a TON of work. Blizzard would have to COMPLETELY and TOTALLY rewrite their entire gameplay architecture – this is a massive undertaking and perhaps the biggest and most complex part of the game. To make an analogy, this would be like ripping out an automobile’s custom engine and creating a brand new custom engine.

On top of that, Blizzard is not a speedy developer in the first place. I’d rather them spend the 6-12 months improving the gameplay than doing something like this.

I’m not sure why this is reported as news, because as noted it is simply an example of how battle.net already works for Diablo 2. What, Blizzard somehow ‘forgot’ how they did it then?

With the use of the terms “sealed” and “unsealed” I was expecting some sort of cryptographic key required that would secure the operations of the D3 server when run locally on the players box. However there is absolutely no evidence of this in the “infographic” (just call it a picture, seriously) and therefore this brings absolutely nothing new or interesting to the table at all.

The point is moot anyway: even if it were possible to make a cryptographically-protected offline version of the game (which I doubt, because the code has to be decrypted at some point to execute it), Blizzard simply wouldn’t do the work to support it because they aren’t interested. The RMAH is the business case behind D3 and I doubt that without it the game would have been made.

…and this still doesn’t address the fact that there is a way the user can get character data onto their local machine. Once people can crack in to see player files and item files like that is one huge step to getting nefarious tricks and such onto the sealed version of the game.

I’ve said this until I’m blue in the face. The always online is largely there to secure the auction halls and work heavily to preventing hacked and duped items. By doing this and *NOT* having an option for allowing things to be local, Blizzard never has to ever install any character data on someone’s machine. This makes it harder for hacker sorts to get in and do their stuff. (It’s not impossible, nothing is perfectly secure, but it sure makes it a helluva lot harder)

I think it’s a nice illustration. Sure, it’s simplistic in that Blizzard are not exactly wanting to let the server code out their sight. However, so far the online only aspect of the game is not proving that successful for security reasons. The current hacks, the fact that there are bots in the game and whatever else people think up in the coming weeks.

Effectively Diablo is an ARPG with multiplayer co-op, and keeping this in mind, we are seeing a whole lot of issues for players due to the online only aspect. The fact that there needs to be a six hour period of no play for ‘server maintenance’ is really not great for the player. Diablo 3 is not an MMO at the end of the day but utilises online to keep the AH tight and attempt to keep the server secure.

I don’t follow WoW much any more, but as far as I know are there not emulated servers for that? So we are going to see emulated servers for D3 at some point, it will take time to get them any good but they will appear no matter how tight the Blizzard server-side code is locked down. Sad fact but it will happen.

Current hacks? Which are they then? Those ones with absolutely no evidence? Oh yes – them.

Also, it’s true that there will at some point be an emulated server for D3 – Mooege guys got it working for the beta, but there was no monster AI, quests, drops etc. To get an emulator working anything like retail is a LOT of work, it’ll take years. Even then, would you really want to play there, when you can just give yourself the best gear, which ruins the point of the game?

2 German brothers basically held the BNet “hostage” and made off with an undisclosed profit off eBay and 3rd party sources. The eBay transaction was the GDP equivalent of a >200 ranked country. Can’t locate the article down since Diabloii.net no longer exists.

There is no hope this request will receive Blizzard’s attention. Aside from the author’s need to be overly wordy, it lacks a motivator for Blizzard to give it any real interest.

Blizzard has made it crystal clear they do not care, even a little bit, about those who lack reliable internet. D3 is not a sequel for diehard Diablo fans that want to continue the adventure, but a new game entirely built for casual mainstream gamers and the coveted revenues of RMAH integrated within.

We will never see an offline option that could potentially compromise the RMAH cash cow…will never happen! Accept that our pleas have been rejected outright and move on. The choice is simple, don’t buy the game; which ultimately doesn’t concern them (have you seen the sales numbers) OR buy the game and accept that you’re going to have issues playing it…but at least you’ll be playing it.

Lay of the dude. Just wait for the Crack buddy….. Everything gets cracked eventually its only a matter of time….. for those who say that it won’t be cracked…. STFU……. for those who say that Crack is a long way…. maybe years….. ok.. we’ll wait….:D But it will come one day.

Edit: Just get a friends copy of the game…. play it one time and Move on…. this game isn’t game you can play for the next 10 years unless you want some easy money from the RMAH. Only thing that will keep Diablo 3 alive will be the expansions. (Just like WoW) Honestly get a console or a high end PC…. there are some pretty sick games on the horizon for both. 2012-2013. Just 2 words for the fans missing on D3….. MOVE ON. This isn’t Diablo…. this is World of Diablo…. it was not made by Blizzard North… it was made by Activi$ion Bli$$ard. They killed Cain for crying out loud in the most stupid WoW like scene ever. Diablo is dead. Welcome to WoD (World of Diablo) There are great other “OFFLINE” games out there, Tl2, Max Payne 3 etc. Jay Wilson himself said, “There are other games to Play” when he was asked about the DRM. What kind of a fat Bas*ard is he?

I knew it was gonna be bullshit the second I saw the word “achievements”. does he really think Actiblizzard would take him seriously with that worthless crap? next he’s gonna ask for an exclusive CE wings dye for “sealed”.

How cute, Diablo III comes in an envelope that you can’t open. That metaphor was exactly what Blizzard needed to change its mind. The graphic makes it even clearer how comparing the game to a sealed letter is such a powerful, head-explodingly compelling idea. Zilch.